Be Holy, Be Happy!
Thursday, August 7, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #271
Our communities should be characterized by love
for God, the call to holiness in all aspects, fullness of love, love towards
others, and spiritual brotherhood. This should not be just any love or charity,
but charity that aims at living to the maximum the criteria of the dialectic of
the maximum: spiritual brotherhood. (The Theological Community)
Journeying with the Founder Day #270
Unity of love, heart, and thought—with a
multiplicity of charisms all fused in charity—enable us to reach unity of
thought and of affection. (The Theological Community)
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #269
Our witness of Christ must be founded on a
personal experience of Him. Thus we must ask ourselves if every contact we have
with the Lord, especially through the sacraments, is an experience of Him; if
every prayer we offer is an experience of Him. Without being aware of Him,
there is the danger that our testimony will only be about things we have read,
listened to, or heard rather than a testimony coming from a profound,
life-giving relationship with Christ, Who then becomes the reality we give
witness to. (The Witness)
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #268
I do not know if the witness of words and works
is always most necessary or if sometimes—perhaps many times—what is most
necessary is a discreet, almost unnoticed but real presence of persons who give
witness to Christ with their prayer, gentleness, and example, helping others
grow in Christ’s likeness. (The Witness)
Monday, July 28, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #267
The Father has loved Christ, His Incarnate
Eternal Word; He has witnessed that Christ is His beloved Son, and that we must
listen to and follow Him. Let us pause a moment and ask ourselves: to what
extent have we accepted the Father’s witness in our life? What place does
Christ truly have in our life, not just verbally but truly? What have we done
to be an echo of the Father’s witness? (The Witness)
Saturday, July 26, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #266
Christ is the Icon written by the Incarnated
Word in Mary’s womb. However, we—and this is an Oriental thought—prefer to use
another expression that is also true: Christ is the Icon written by the Holy Spirit in the Immaculate’s womb. (The Witness)
Journeying with the Founder Day #265
Many times we have to have the courage to face
the risk of failure… The courage to risk! A courage based on prayer,
perseverance, and effort. (The Witness)
Journeying with the Founder Day #264
Many times we have to have the courage to face
the risk of failure… The courage to risk! A courage based on prayer,
perseverance, and effort. (The Witness)
Journeying with the Founder Day #263
As we often read in a beautiful antiphon of
Vespers, Christ has to become the heart of the world. Before becoming the heart
of the world, though, He must become the heart of our life. (The Witness)
Journeying with the Founder Day #262
We are each personally the temple of God, and as
a consequence, we will be the great Kingdom of God all together. This is the
principle of the New Covenant, which is not only general but personal, the
center of our life, the center of my life. (The Witness)
Journeying with the Founder Day #261
Where does the certainty of our word come from?
It does not come from our studies or abilities, but from our connection with
God. The more we are united with God, the more we will have the ability to
witness the Word. (The Witness)
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #260
The specific call to the ‘word’ does not nullify
our awareness of our inability because the word is not the result of personal
ability but is only the result of the touch of the divine on the mouth of a
human creature. Therefore the weight of our humanness, the fact of being a poor
creature, remains. (The Witness)
Monday, July 21, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #259
Sunday, July 20, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #258
Abraham does not doubt because he is sure that
God will keep His promise. Abraham becomes a witness of this promise; he is a
witness of God’s project that is a project of love. He knows by experience that
it is a project of love so tender that it anticipates the incarnate love of the
New Testament. (The Witness)
Journeying with the Founder Day #257
There are so many difficulties that it is not
easy to be witnesses. However, if we reflect with the simple look of
contemplation on the Father’s creative love, Christ’s presence, and the Holy
Spirit’s work, we have to take courage because I trust that in Heaven we will
find ourselves to be much more than we think based on human calculations. (The Witness)
Saturday, July 19, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #256
There are so many difficulties that it is not
easy to be witnesses. However, if we reflect with the simple look of
contemplation on the Father’s creative love, Christ’s presence, and the Holy
Spirit’s work, we have to take courage because I trust that in Heaven we will
find ourselves to be much more than we think based on human calculations. (The Witness)
Friday, July 18, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #255
Let us strive to acquire a healthy sense of
optimism because there is more good around us than we think. At other events I
have often told you, “Get rid of the black glasses!” In this field, regardless
of the great evils we are experiencing and the immense evil that seems to
prevail, contemplation of the presence of the Spirit should give us great
serenity, great peace, and the certainty of tomorrow; and this certainty of
tomorrow will then give us a sense of hope. (The Witness)
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #254
Christ has been the passion of myriads of
saints, of an enormous quantity of martyrs, of little ones as well as of great
ones—Christ living in the Eucharist, but above all Christ in the reality of the
crucifixion. Think, for example, of our great mystics, of Saints Francis of
Assisi, Catherine of Siena, Teresa of Jesus, John of the Cross, Paul of the
Cross, Gemma Galgani. Through their lives these saints have been the
historical, spiritual and mystical reproduction of Christ. If you take a relic of
these persons and chemically analyze it, you will find the name of Christ. (The Witness)
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #253
Mary is for us an exemplar stone. Thus we
can and must look at Mary in our effort to become and to acquire the awareness
of being a poor stone, in the effort of living as a cornerstone, in the
sacrifice of being a stone beaten, rejected, and refined in the hope of being a
precious stone. (The Rock)
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #252
Do we make time to stop for an instant to look
at the wonders and the power of God, of this God Who surrounds us? (The Witness)
Monday, July 14, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #251
I need to be in contact with God, to listen to
His footsteps; I need to perceive Him around me, to experience that He is
present and is at work as my Father, that He surrounds me with His love and
envelops me in His embrace of love through nature. (The Witness)
Sunday, July 13, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #250
We are surrounded by a marvelous reality, a
thick web of the divine; however, hastiness, challenges, and the many difficult
situations in which we find ourselves and that trouble our psyches do not allow
us to perceive and read this marvelous reality in-depth, with a contemplative
look rather than merely an intellectual or philosophical analysis. (The Witness)
Saturday, July 12, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #249
“The more” springs only from a profound
experience of the divine. (The Witness)
Friday, July 11, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #248
The Church—especially at the beginning, and even
in outward manifestations—is led by the presence of the Holy Spirit. We have to
be aware of this and, therefore, we must have the courage to witness to it—to
know that we are bearers of the Spirit, to be fully aware of it, and so to be
filled with joy. (The Witness)
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #247
Do you think that bearing the cross did not cost
Christ much? Do you think that going to Calvary was an easy stroll for the
Lord? What did the chalice of blood, the chalice of suffering, and the chalice
that we experience, actually mean for Christ? The Lord took, accepted, loved,
and drank His chalice to the end! We, too, have to do God’s will in our life;
our food is to do God’s will. (The Witness)
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #246
Regardless of our discomfort and the
difficulties we may encounter, an attitude of full interior availability is
necessary, an availability that we must acquire with effort. Then, yes, we may
say that we are people who with our life and sacrifices show we believe in the
ideal to which we have consecrated ourselves and to which we give witness. (The Witness)
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #245
What do we call in common, everyday language the
awareness of the impoverished choice made by God and the awareness that the
mission entrusted to us is beyond our abilities? The name is very simple: humility—that is, the perception of our own littleness, of our own nothingness
and, therefore, referring all to God: He is all; He chooses, and He chose me. (The Witness)
Monday, July 7, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #244
Any witness, and all the more so an
extraordinary witness, must have an intimate connection with the divine. Why
don’t we start to examine ourselves on our level of connection with God? It is
a strictly personal matter that we verify. Am I united with God? What type of
relationship do I have with the Lord? How is my prayer? (The Witness)
Sunday, July 6, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #243
In this law of sacramentality, we all have the
precise duty to become not simply a remembrance, a memory, or a reality that
contains the mystery of God, but rather a prophetic explosion of this mystery. (The Witness)
Saturday, July 5, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #242
Each one of us is chosen by God to become a
prophet, to become word like John who was a voice, a word. Each one of us, just
because we are inserted in the sacramental mystery, must become word. We cannot
hide this richness within ourselves that God has given us. When we speak of the
apostolate, we speak fundamentally of prophecy, of the word that is within us,
that nestles within us, the mystery that is effective in us and that we must
project outside ourselves. (The Witness)
Friday, July 4, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #241
Let us ask ourselves with simplicity and
humility how many of us—myself included—during the Mass, though remaining very
attentive during the celebration, call to mind the double reality of Calvary
and of the Cenacle that takes place. (The Witness)
Thursday, July 3, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #240
Is there a discrepancy between our speaking and
the vital reality of our being, between what we say—what we “chat about”—and
the way we live? I assure you, it is not difficult to speak; having natural
talent and a little practice is enough to become the best speakers… You could
speak much better than I, but this is not important. Knowing how to speak isn’t
what matters, but what is behind the words; if there is involvement of life
there is witness. (The Witness)
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #239
It is God who works through us, not we who work:
this is the humility that we must have when we carry out the apostolate. (The Witness)
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #238
If we know that all comes from God, then we have
to be aware of it, and our witness will have meaning as long as it is God Who
works through our witness…To have the awareness that only the Lord can make our
work fruitful; to have a sense of humility and not an excessive trust in
technical means, almost carrying out the apostolate as if we were running a
business or industry, as if the apostle were a manager, as if with the
technical means of spreading that we now have, we would be able to solve all
the problems. (The Witness)
Monday, June 30, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #237
If we remained more often in the presence of
God, if God were more present in us through prayer, mortification,
intercession, and study, who knows how much fruit we would bear! Jesus
explicitly said that we must bear much fruit because this is the will of God. (The Witness)
Sunday, June 29, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #236
The stronger our negative inclinations are, the
more we have to be vigilantly watchful just as Christ taught us, and after Him,
just as all those who have lived an intense Christian experience like St. Peter
and St. Paul have taught us. (Prayer)
Saturday, June 28, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #235
From time to time we should ask ourselves if,
after being in an environment for years, nothing has grown from my activity or
my work, might it be that there is not a sufficient presence of God in me, in
my life, and in my work? Do I bring myself rather than bringing Christ? (The Witness)
Friday, June 27, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #234
Every Christian is sacramentally sent by God, by
Christ, to accomplish a work, a mission, and to be a witness in the bosom of
the Church. (The Witness)
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #233
As a witness I am a sacrament; therefore I must
make possible for others knowledge of the divine, experience of the divine, and
participation in the divine. Those who see me must meet God and must have an
experience of God through me. (The Witness)
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #232
Birthday of Our Founder
Lord Jesus, in this moment I wish to thank You.
First of all I thank You, Jesus; then I thank our loving Father,
and then Mary, our holy Mother, because You have chosen me from a little town
where I certainly did not comprehend the immensity of Your love. I thank all of
you with my whole heart and thank also the family from which I was born, a
simple family in which love and fear of God were breathed. (Thanksgiving
after Communion, March 19, 1989)
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #231
If I want to speak of holiness, of heroic love,
and universal brotherhood, I understand that this need must come from a deep
interior drive. There cannot be a separation between what I say and what I do
because the message that I present is too demanding, and therefore it must
involve me personally. (The Witness)
Monday, June 23, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #230
When I give a consistent witness with my life,
when I see another person as someone in whom God acts in mystery, and when
consequently I connect this life pervaded by God with the experience that this
person communicates to me, then I believe in the experience, and the witness is
credible. (The Witness)
Sunday, June 22, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #229
At the very moment that I receive the Body of
Christ, in a certain sense I have also received my neighbor because in the
Eucharist I become one with him. And how must I love that neighbor? It is not
simply an issue of love but of co-responsibility. My neighbor is not far from
me—yet I would say the term “neighbor” is not exactly right because it means
someone who is merely close, while we are instead fused into one Body. It is
something more profound than to be close to one another: the other is no longer
“neighbor” but part of myself. We form a Mystical Body, each one of us being
responsible for our brothers and sisters because we share the Eucharist (The
Eucharist).
Saturday, June 21, 2014
More info from June 21st
Thank you again Margie for comments and more beautiful photos
Today we walked to bishop Giaquita's birthplace and childhood home which has been renovated and is a ProSanctity center here in Noto, Italy. We celebrated Mass with the Latvian, Italian and Indian members. The video outdoors was taken during that Mass
Post from June 19th of the Italy pilgrimage including photos
I have been putting daily posts on facebook since the pilgrimage began on 6-17. I'm sorry it took me so long to add these posts to our blog. I thought someone might be adding them from Italy but so far this has not happened so I am transferring my posts from facebook to the blog. This post was from June 19th
Journeying with the Founder Day #228
Witness is the continuation of Christ’s mandate:
“…That they may see the good you do and give praise to your heavenly Father”
(Mt 5:16). Let us ask ourselves if others can always see the Father when
looking at us. "Can they see the light of the Father reflected in
us?" (The Witness)
Friday, June 20, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #227
A radioactive stone has the power to radiate
energy uninterruptedly, to radiate the greatest energy known, which we call
nuclear energy. Behold, then, my wish for you—that you all become radioactive
stones, that without your being aware of it, you have a saintly effect on
others and that you emit it unceasingly. But what do you emit? First of all
love, then a smile, and certainly good work. Speak, share words, share the
human word and the Divine Word, Who is Christ. (The Rock)
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #226
ach one of you has received a little white stone
on which is written a new name that is your specific vocation, the type of
holiness that the Lord wants from you, the type of precious stone that you have
to become. Do you know where your white stone is? Have you kept it? Have you
defined it? (The Rock)
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #225
The personal relationship between you and God,
between each person and God, is a mystery, and I would say that every person
has received a hidden precious stone that only God and the person—and perhaps
the spiritual director—know about. (The Rock)
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #224
Christ wanted the Church be holy in her entirety
and in her individual members. The Church is a precious stone, a jewel, and we
are precious stones because God wanted it so. The Lord wants us to become holy,
that we become precious stones, and from that our apostolate follows. We are to
attain this level of preciousness wanted by God that Christ, a precious Stone,
has acquired with His precious blood. (The Rock)
Monday, June 16, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #223
We must be precious stones. When we speak of
holiness we say that we have to become polished, precious gemstones. (The Rock)
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #222
Lord, I thank You completely because You wanted
me to share in Your cross, in Your suffering, and also in Your tenderness… Lord
Jesus, I sense that this is the way I am to live these last years of my life.
How many will there be? I do not know, and I have no interest in knowing. I
know only that I am to live them in union with You, Who loved me infinitely on
the Cross and Who loved Your Father, my Heavenly Father, immeasurably. Lord
Jesus, thank You for all You have done for me and have given me; thank You for
all You will yet do for me. (Thanksgiving after Communion, March 19, 1989)
We often think that the Trinity is not only an
unfathomable mystery, but also an invisible one…yet if we reflect a little, we
can identify three tabernacles of the Trinity. The Eucharistic Tabernacle is
also the Tabernacle of the Trinity because where the Son is, the Father and the
Holy Spirit are also present. There is also the interior tabernacle of each one
of us. “If someone loves me, my Father will love him, and We will come to him
and make Our abode within him.” We understand from this that the Trinity is
present within us. Finally there is the tabernacle of the world. The whole of
creation is the Father’s work with the presence of the Word of God and of the
Spirit Who gives life. (Homily, Holy Trinity, 1988)
Saturday, June 14, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #221
Let us free ourselves from our negative
experiences, from excessive fears or prejudices regarding priests. We love the
priests, we respect them. (The Rock)
Friday, June 13, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #220
Let us not forget to verify ourselves with
Peter, that is, with the Church. When St. Paul had some questions, he consulted
Peter because he didn’t want to walk a different path, to walk in vain. This
means we must build on Peter and with Peter, on Christ and with Christ, and not
only regarding great theological principles and the principles of faith, but
also regarding pastoral and liturgical plans. (The Rock)
Thursday, June 12, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #219
To the degree that I worship Christ, that I love
Christ, and I would even say that to the degree that I adore Christ, so I love
the Holy Father, so I love the bishops, and so I love priests because I venerate
and love them for what is divine in them. As persons they can be poor and
sullen people, but I love them for what is divine in them and because they are
the continuation of Christ and of the Spirit. (The Rock)
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #218
The Apostolic Oblate, who is herself a gift of
love to Christ, is a sacrificial offering of hope for the apostolate of
holiness in general and for the apostolate of social holiness in particular. (The
Theological Community)
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #217
Jesus said to the Samaritan woman: the Father
asks for true adorers. We wish to become adorers with this spirit of adoration
that includes the dimension of contemplative silence—not silence for the sake
of silence, but silence that seriously ponders the divine, the supernatural.
This silence helps us fix our eyes on the Master—a contemplative silence. We
wish to become adorers with this spirit of adoration that includes the dimension
of affective intimacy. Think of the Evangelist John who lays his head on the
Master’s Heart. (The Rock)
Monday, June 9, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #216
Do you think that acquiring Christ’s virtues and
transfiguring ourselves in Christ does not imply refining our nature and our
soul? Don’t you think that we need effort, help, and the sacrament of
Reconciliation? To be on a penitential journey and on a transfiguring journey,
we need to place ourselves on the field where the stone is leveled. Like a
stone that is smoothed and polished, we are on an ascending journey to
eliminate evil and acquire what is good. (The Rock)
Sunday, June 8, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #215
Holy Spirit, fire of love, set my heart ablaze so that I may inflame the hearts of my brothers and sisters. (Prayers)
Saturday, June 7, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #214
We have to love our perturbed, poor, devastated,
and tragic time in history because this is the time in which the Lord has
placed us—especially you—to be His witnesses. Our time has to be understood,
not judged; it has to be loved. (The Witness)
Friday, June 6, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #213
What spontaneous feelings accompany our time of
prayer? Are they haste and boredom, or interiority and moral energy? Do we have
a sense of mystery, a sense of darkness, or a sense of light? Is our time of
prayer spent in loving? It is important that each one of us examines our prayer
time and defines it according to our personal experience. (Prayer)
Thursday, June 5, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #212
The penitential journey is a participation in
Christ’s life, Christ’s kenosis, the emptying of Christ. (The Rock)
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #211
There cannot be an abundance of grace without
conversion and, thus, without penance. Penance is the way of conversion; conversion
is the way toward holiness. (The Rock)
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #210
We know of many movements that are based on
emotions and others that are especially based on psychology. We are based
mainly on rationality and theology. This is what we strive for—to reach a
harmonious blending of these elements. Certainly it is not easy for us or for
others, but by now we have learned how difficult it is to work with stone, a
stone that needs to be refined. Let us ask the Lord to give us the courage to
do this hard and sometimes painful work. (The Rock)
Monday, June 2, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #209
Man, besides being an economic and political
reality that needs food, a home, and the protection of his civil rights, is
first and foremost a son of God who has a soul and who is called to the
vocation of maximalism—the vocation of Christian love, which is holiness. Obviously
he has physical and material needs, but his first duty, the one that bathes his
whole life in a unique light, is the need to love God with his whole heart. (The
Revolution of the Samaritans)
Sunday, June 1, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #208
At first glance, commemorating the Ascension would not seem to be
a great, beautiful feast because it is when the Lord goes away and the
disciples (and we with them) remain orphans in a certain sense. In fact there
is a sense of sadness in the Apostles. Where do they find consolation? I do not
believe they find it so much in the words that the Angels say to them (i.e.,
that Christ Who has ascended will return) but more through Mary’s presence in
their midst. This is important because from this point on, they must model
their relationship not only on Jesus but also on the living reality of Mary,
whom Jesus wanted to be among them.
Today with Mary we say to Jesus, Who is ascended into Heaven:
“Lord, You have planned our life, and that’s fine; You have revolutionized our
life, and that’s fine; however, do not abandon us! Look at Your mother and look
at us. You sustained Your mother; sustain us, too, so that we may follow You on
this journey of the revolution of love.” (Homily, May 12, 1988)
Saturday, May 31, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #207
Behold some aspects that affect our goal:
Interior joy—in order to learn inner joy, think of the Madonna at the nativity.
Loving oblation—think of Mary going to visit Elizabeth, giving herself in the humblest service.
Apostolic oblation—consider Jesus, Who lets Himself be consumed during His public life.
Sacrificial conformity—reflect on the whole tragedy of Golgotha. (The Rock)
Interior joy—in order to learn inner joy, think of the Madonna at the nativity.
Loving oblation—think of Mary going to visit Elizabeth, giving herself in the humblest service.
Apostolic oblation—consider Jesus, Who lets Himself be consumed during His public life.
Sacrificial conformity—reflect on the whole tragedy of Golgotha. (The Rock)
Friday, May 30, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #206
Mary is a woman who has suffered the whole reality of Christ’s salvation for us. Thus we can and must say that Mary is a stone rejected. (The Rock)
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #205
Like Christ, Mary is the poor stone (“pietra povera”). She herself says: He looked on the nothingness of His handmaid. Precisely because she is a poor stone, she is a cornerstone. Christ is the cornerstone in the building of the Church, in the building of the plan of salvation; so Mary, with Christ, is a cornerstone. In the desert, water flowed from the stone struck by Moses; [on Calvary] Christ’s side is struck by a sword, and blood and water gush forth ushering in the Church. From the heart of Mary, sweetly touched by the
Holy Spirit, comes Christ Jesus. (The Rock)
Holy Spirit, comes Christ Jesus. (The Rock)
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #204
As long as we are rational creatures, the connection, interplay, and tension between nature and grace will never end. Therefore in the spiritual life, the definitive, final battle is never won, even if we sometimes would like to forget that. (The Rock)
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #203
It is a matter of fact that in the natural order, for a complex of reasons—be they physiological or psychological—we are physically and sensibly attached as though by our umbilical cord to the environment where we were from, or to that complex of habits that we acquired in the world where we came from. What takes place in the natural order also takes place in the spiritual realm; that is, like our first parents, we are attracted to sin. (The Rock)
Monday, May 26, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #202
We need witnesses who reassure people and help calm their anxieties. See how many people around us are filled with anxiety. Experience teaches us that they are helped more by our kindness than by tranquilizers. If we strive to be like St. Francis—if we are givers of peace and serenity—much anguish will be eliminated. (The Witness)
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #201
There is a mysterious relationship between external prayer and inner union. The one is the soul of the other; the first is a living and unquenchable expression of the second. Inner union is a conscious and existent look at the Trinity present in us and is the essential basis of our external prayer. External prayer is more vivacious and rich when it is consciously nurtured and continuously vivified by inner union. (Prayer)
Saturday, May 24, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #200
Jesus is not a stranger to Mary. He is the Son of God—the Son of God Who became her own Son. Mary loves Jesus with a natural love that is supernatural, a love that is both human and divine. Therefore we find an absolute completeness of love in Mary toward Jesus. And those ways that are normal in a mother become even more marvelous and supernatural in Mary because the object of this love is not only a child, but is a Child Who is God. (The Rock)
Friday, May 23, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #199
There are no plastic action-figures in the Gospel, but real persons, persons who have a heart, who had one then and have one still today. Christ, too, has a heart, and He has it today as well. Mary had a heart, and she has it today, too. Mary Magdalene had a heart, and she has it today, too. In this way the Gospel today becomes a present reality. It is my experience today because I, too, try to have a heart and strive to have a heart not made of plastic or a heart of stone, as Ezekiel said, but a heart of flesh. (The Rock)
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #198
Lord, may the beating of Your Heart warm me! What did You feel Lord? Let us not forget that the Lord has a heart, even today He has a heart, He has feelings. What have Your feelings been, Lord? What are Your feelings today? (The Rock)
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #197
Jesus, may Your example be my light, may Your life be my light! Let us ask this of the Lord! May Your example be my light, may Your life be my light. Lord, what have You done? May I do it, too!
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #196
Why shouldn’t we in some way, in our littleness, establish a relationship of love, a heart relationship with Jesus? So many times we are cold, many times we consider Him to be far away, to be a stranger, and so sometimes the expressions of the saints seem to us sugary, exaggerated…Holiness is not a thought; it is not a reasoning; it is not a syllogism; it is not a search. Holiness is love. (The Rock)
Monday, May 19, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #195
There are people who are in love with the Eucharist and who put the Eucharist at the center of their lives; Holy Communion is the fundamental moment of the day and a basic aspect of their spirituality. A modest question might be posed to some of them. Why, after eating so much Eucharistic Bread, they are still not holy? If the Eucharistic Jesus transforms us into Himself – Who is purity, love, goodness, and self-giving to the brothers— why after so many Communions and even immediately after receiving Communion, why do other tendencies still arise in us? (Holiness)
Sunday, May 18, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #194
We should ask ourselves this question: is Christ our life? Are we centered on Him to the point that between Him and us there is a real identification, not only a configuration, but an identification, a personalization? (The Rock)
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #193
We are not instituted outside of Christ as a reality distinct from Him, but we are built on Christ to become one with Him. (The Rock)
Friday, May 16, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #192
We grow much during our lifetime; on what foundation have we based our growth? I do not accuse you of not having a foundation—no, my daughters, but please, let us pause and examine ourselves. What have we to examine about ourselves? We have to evaluate ourselves on fundamental virtues. We have reviewed many of them already, and we will go over others later. For now, I will list a few without commenting on them: humility, spirit of sacrifice, self-abnegation and mastering oneself. (The Rock)
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #191
May the Holy Spirit grow in us until He becomes in us a river that overflows into eternal life. Thanks be to God, love for the Holy Spirit is gradually growing. I wish that each one of us would be fully possessed by the Holy Spirit because He is the One Who forms the face of Christ in us. (The Rock)
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #190
In the Eucharist Christ transforms us into Himself. This transformation—that takes place when we receive the Eucharist—must accompany us the whole day because it is the most important moment of transformation. The Eucharistic Jesus is the Sacrament par excellence; it is the main mystery of our encounter with Jesus. We can pray thousands of holy hours, but they are not equal to one Holy Communion because when we receive the Eucharist, Christ grabs us and transforms us, if we let Him grab us and transform us. (The Rock)
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #189
A profound transformation can take place only by passing
through knowledge to experience, from knowledge of
Christ to experience of Christ. I don’t have to know that I
am a branch of the vine that is Christ; but I must strive to
immerse myself in Him. And when at times suffering brushes
close to me, I have to realize that it is my Father-Gardener
who comes to prune me so that I can bear fruit in Christ(The Rock)
through knowledge to experience, from knowledge of
Christ to experience of Christ. I don’t have to know that I
am a branch of the vine that is Christ; but I must strive to
immerse myself in Him. And when at times suffering brushes
close to me, I have to realize that it is my Father-Gardener
who comes to prune me so that I can bear fruit in Christ(The Rock)
Monday, May 12, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #188
We would not even consider having a spirituality that is only disembodied, only rational and abstract or made of syllogisms. At the same time, though, we wouldn’t think of having our spirituality based only on the heart because our hearts are changeable; neither can we base it on emotions. If we want to have a complete spiritual life, let us ground our spirituality on theology, and let us enrich it with our heart and, if we so wish, with our sensitivity, too. (The Rock)
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #187
A mother who spends sleepless nights by her sick child does it with great tenderness, sacrificing and immolating herself as if it were the simplest, most natural and normal thing in the world. Tenderness springs from motherhood. Our charity has to be like this; tenderness must be the maximum expression. True charity springs from God’s love and thus becomes delicate, gentle sweetness. (Charity)
Saturday, May 10, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #186
Friday, May 9, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #185
How many times we have gone astray, and the Lord has been waiting for us. How many times we have been lost, and the Lord has come to look for us! And what about the many personal graces that have enriched our relationship with God, of which each of us alone knows and of which—perhaps from forgetfulness—we do not recall in detail? How many personal graces, how many particular graces the Lord has given us! Why did He choose us, such poor choices? Why has the Lord loved us so much? (The Rock)
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #184
What are the foundational values of our personal, community, and apostolic “building”? Are they those of the rejected stone or those of the world? Do we realize that we neglect Christ when we look for ego-gratification—affirmation of ourselves, of our personality, our thoughts, our way of acting, our own will? Even though this may sometimes be hidden, it can still be real. (The Rock)
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #183
Even though it seems that the Church is always on the losing side, her Kingdom has always extended and deepened. Behold the mystery of the Cross; behold the mystery of the powerless; behold the mystery of the rejected stone that—just because it has been rejected—has become the cornerstone. (The Rock)
Monday, May 5, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #182
How hard it is to be a carrying stone! It is easy to be carried, but it is difficult to be a stone that carries others. Eventually we become tired, and we ask ourselves, “Why must I do it? Why am I always the person who gives in? Why must I be the one to sacrifice myself? Why don’t the others do the same?” Let us look at Christ, who did not please Himself. He did not seek His own comfort but continued to the end—and the end was the top of a mountain, Calvary. (The Rock)
Sunday, May 4, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #181
Christ is the cornerstone, so we have to confirm ourselves with Him. We either pit ourselves against Him or build ourselves upon Him. Let us be passionate about Him, make Him the object of love, the object of our love and even of our passion. If we are capable, we are to be passionately in love with Christ, as passionate as the saints. (The Rock)
Saturday, May 3, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #180
We have to continuously bring our lives to Christ for examination, authentication, and review, “overhauling” ourselves according to Christ, His Word, His Example, His living presence in the Church and the Magisterium. Christ is not a past reality or a piece of history; He is a present reality that becomes part of our life, for us and for the whole world. (The Rock)
Friday, May 2, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #179
We can distinguish three phases in the prayer of the Virgin Mary. The first is the one addressed to the Father, in which the angel of the annunciation finds her. The second is the Christological phase in which dialogue with the Son unfolds in contemplation during the time of waiting, in the simple life of Nazareth, in her daily, humble recollected service. In the third phase she is associated with the public life of Jesus. This is her moment of service to the brethren, to the mystery of salvation. (Prayer)
Thursday, May 1, 2014
Journeying with the Founder Day #178
Instead of being an old people of the old Law, we are a new people, people who have been inserted into and built upon a new foundation, which is Christ. Where are the people of God born? The old people of God were born on the mountain where the covenant took place, on Sinai. The new people are born on the mystical mountain that is Christ; Christ the stone, Christ the mountain, Christ Who identifies Himself
with the mountain in the Sermon on the Mount and, moreover, on Mount Golgotha. (The Rock)
with the mountain in the Sermon on the Mount and, moreover, on Mount Golgotha. (The Rock)
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